European Union organises roundtable on reforestation to celebrate Environment Day

To celebrate the Environment Day, the European Union (EU) is organizing a roundtable at Alliance Française on 4th of June, at 16.00, to analyse available options to regreening Ghana, to identify and propose ideas and solutions to involve communities and to increase the sustainability of forests and trees in Ghana.

The EU Ambassador to Ghana, Mrs. Diana Acconcia, will host the event with the participation of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Governmental Organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO’s), EU projects working in the area of reforestation, the Green Ghana Initiative, Embassies and Development Partners of the Environment and Natural Resources Working Group.

The EU has been in the front line of climate action and is keen to promote a learning dialogue and build support for the structural change necessary for the transition to low-emission, climate-resilient societies, particularly among younger generations whose futures are the most threatened by climate change.

Climate change is closely linked with forests. Forests are indispensable to our life support system. The air we breathe is from forests, we rely on forests for foods, biodiversity, energy and more. Protecting and restoring world’s forests is crucial for maintaining and increasing human well-being and putting our societies on to a sustainable path.

Recently, the Government of Ghana launched an initiative to plant 5 million trees. Accra Metropolitan Assembly also has an initiative to make Accra Greener. Furthermore, the EU supported projects that work in the area, such as REACH (Resilience against Climate Change) and Regreening Ghana.

These two projects will explain their integrated approaches on tree planting and the involvement of the communities in the process, to increase the survival rate of the trees. For example REACH project planted 22,000 trees in 2020 and the survival rate is 82%, which is considered good. Ghanaian NGO’s also have several initiatives to promote and create awareness on reforestation.